Ya Kun Kaya Toast and Mister Donut collaborate on limited-edition kaya cream doughnut, kopi Pon De Ring for National Day

Singapore celebrates its 59th birthday this Aug 9. For National Day, homegrown chain Ya Kun Kaya Toast and popular-in-Japan doughnut brand Mister Donut have teamed up to launch two local-style doughnuts inspired by Ya Kun’s classic Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast and coffee.

YA KUN-FIED DOUGHNUTS

This includes a Ya Kun Kaya Cream doughnut, and Ya Kun Kopi Pon De Ring, both priced at S$3 a piece (US$2.24), six for S$14 and 10 for S$23. The limited-edition flavours are available only from Aug 1 to 31 at all Mister Donut outlets islandwide, and come in a cute paper pouch emblazoned with Mister Donut and Ya Kun’s logos.

For every purchase of two doughnuts from this collab, you get a Ya Kun Kaya Toast scratch ‘n’ win card with prizes like S$1 off a Value Set Meal A to D, free upsize of a hot kopi or tea, or a S$1 discount for any muffin purchase.

For those who complain that Ya Kun’s popular set meals are getting pricier every year, consider this a rare chance that you actually get a set meal at a lower price than before.

The scratch cards are given to only the first 100 customers of the day at each Mister Donut outlet, and each person is limited to one card.

YA KUN KAYA CREAM DOUGHNUT, S$3

This bomboloni-style doughnut is the cousin of Ya Kun's kaya toast, back from an exchange semester in Japan. Instead of a smear of kaya and butter slab, the puffy sugared doughnut is very generously stuffed with a pandan-scented filling that incorporates Ya Kun’s kaya into whipped cream. No shrinkflation for kaya serving here, we say.

An enjoyable treat that’s not the everyday kaya toast fare, but still familiar enough to be comforting. You’d want an accompanying cup of kopi to make this a legit Singaporean breakfast.

YA KUN KOPI PON DE RING, S$3

But the ‘kopi’ for this Ya Kun and Mister Donut collab is also a doughnut, albeit one that has Ya Kun’s old-school kopi-o blended into Mister Donut’s chewy Pon De Ring (oh, and the Japanese creator of this garland-shaped doughnut is an interesting guy).

The doughnut is then dipped into coffee-flavoured milk chocolate, which is actually as bitter as Nanyang-style kopi-o due with visible specks of coffee powder. We don’t fancy its tannic bitterness, but the mochi dough has a lovely coffee aroma. A respectably impressive attempt at translating our local kopi to a Japanese doughnut.

Mister Donut x Ya Kun Kaya Toast’s collaboration doughnuts are available from Aug 1 to 31 at all Mister Donut outlets islandwide. For details on outlet locations, go to www.res.com.sg/en/brands/mister-donut.

This story was originally published in 8Days.